This depends on what you see as risk. If I can safely earn for 5 years way above national average and build a strong savings egg that can provide income forever.

Or I can fail at a startup and be close to zero five years later, the fact that you aren't homeless and starving and can get another job doesn't mean it wasn't risky, you still wasted a bunch of years compared to slow and steady accumulation.

I've read the majority of millionaires in the US get created like this, working and saving through decades.

You're basically repeating investor kool-aid, because for their model to work, 100 people will fail and 1 succeed, and so they tell you to not worry if you're in the 99.